More than three-quarters of U.S. coastal waters are impaired, as are two-thirds of our bays and estuaries and more than half of near coastal ocean waters;

More than two-thirds of our lakes, reservoirs and ponds are impaired as are virtually all of the Great Lakes shorelines and waters; and

More than four-fifths of the nation’s wetlands are also impaired.

These dismal numbers are likely significant underestimates. Thus, 40 years after the enactment of the Clean Water Act, our rivers may look better and may be less likely to catch on fire but the true quality of our waters may be regressing. In short, the Clean Water Act’s promise that our waters be drinkable, swimmable and fishable remains largely unfulfilled.

Distressingly, the EPA figures show clean water progress has slowed under Obama. In 2008, there were 339 previously impaired waters which were restored to their intended uses but only 109 water-bodies were restored in 2012. Similarly, in 2008 agencies addressed 420 causes of impairment but by 2012 that number had fallen to 255.

Environmental issues have been largely absent from this presidential campaign but environmental events, from the BP Gulf spill to Super-storm Sandy, show how key the environment is to our economic as well as our public health. Regardless of who wins the election next week, one unquestioned lesson from Sandy is that water quality is a vital component of American infrastructure and we disinvest in it at our peril.

Orwell Rolls In His Grave, featuring MCM – Buy the DVD

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